It was a quick trip to Barcelona this week, Tuesday morning until yesterday evening. It is such a great city. My mom and I went there once and had an amazing time.

This time it was work related so there was plenty of presentations and information and no sight seeing. It’s okay though, since I can easily go back there for a longer trip next time. It was quite a bit warmer than here but with lots of rain so that also didn’t make me feel like I was missing too much.

I was up early this morning, catching up on the work from the week since the hotel had either really poor Wi-Fi or we really overburdened it with the devices of 142 meeting attendees. I am willing to bet on the second since it seems like everyone has at least one phone, sometimes more, plus tablets and laptops.

I have a customer presentation on Monday and they have sent me a list of questions. Looking through the six subject areas, I am not sure how much they expect to see of this as something that could be done through a live demo. Plus I only have 60 minutes in total and while I talk fast, I don’t think we’re going to get through all of it.

With the changes this year within my team, I am trying to do my job, be available to help my colleagues when they ask for it (freely offered help was not a good strategy), continue my job search and keep all my side projects humming along. It means I don’t have a lot of wiggle room in the schedule right now and am finding myself having to say “No” to things I would ordinarily try to make room for. It has also sharpened my focus in the sense that if I think there is something that will generate more success I will go for it. Earlier this afternoon, I had a conversation with one of my colleagues who had a different meaning over the idea. Instead of spending two weeks debating it, I said bluntly this is the goal I need to reach and here’s how I am going to enlist this resource to help. Figure out for you and yours what works best for you – I’m not committing the team to this, just me.

I thought about the past year while I was in Barcelona and how I struggled to incorporate and make changes on all of the feedback I received. There was so much feedback received, I felt like I was constantly walking in circles. That’s pretty accurate. Last year I was struggling to do everything possible to make my team successful at work. This year, that’s different – I am focusing on making sure that I am successful first, they are responsible for their own successes. This is a strange place to be for me, advocating for myself first. It has come up more than once in my life so I am aware it is an ongoing habit. I am trying to change that. What’s strange is that it becomes only something I can do when I have finally been pushed too far. I’d like to be able to advocate for myself in a healthier manner – like before shit hits the fan 😉

Who knows if that’s a benchmark of adulthood? Finally, right?